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Early Childhood DevelopmentEvery child deserves the best possible start in life. Evidence demonstrates the period from pre-birth to three years is a vital period of development. It lays the foundations for a child’s future and has life-long impacts on health, education, job opportunities, social inclusion and wellbeing.
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Western Australian Child Development Atlas - Phase IDavid Melissa Rebecca Ansell O'Donnell Glauert DipTeach BEd PGD H Science MPhil MPA BPsych (Hons), MPsych, GradDip Ed, PhD BPsych (Hons) PhD Honorary

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WA Health funding supports development of new mental health digital tool for autism familiesA co-designed digital tool to address anxiety concerns for children on the autism spectrum is set to be developed and trialled in Western Australia.

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New collaborations to find better treatments for young people with depressionThe Kids Research Institute Australia welcomed Dr Paul Croarkin from the Mayo Clinic in the US to share his work on understanding and treating depression in young people.
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Genome-Wide Analyses of Vocabulary Size in Infancy and Toddlerhood: Associations With Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder, Literacy, and Cognition-Related TraitsThe number of words children produce (expressive vocabulary) and understand (receptive vocabulary) changes rapidly during early development, partially due to genetic factors. Here, we performed a meta-genome-wide association study of vocabulary acquisition and investigated polygenic overlap with literacy, cognition, developmental phenotypes, and neurodevelopmental conditions, including attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder.
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Identification of subgroups of children in the Australian Autism Biobank using latent class analysisThe identification of reproducible subtypes within autistic populations is a priority research area in the context of neurodevelopment, to pave the way for identification of biomarkers and targeted treatment recommendations. Few previous studies have considered medical comorbidity alongside behavioural, cognitive, and psychiatric data in subgrouping analyses.
Research
Reliability, Validity and Acceptability of the PEDI-CAT with ASD Scales for Australian Children and Youth on the Autism SpectrumThe PEDI-CAT (ASD) is used to assess functioning of children and youth on the autism spectrum; however, current psychometric evidence is limited. This study aimed to explore the reliability, validity and acceptability of the PEDI-CAT (ASD) using a large Australian sample.

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Australia’s first draft national guideline for autism diagnosis releasedAustralia’s first draft national guideline for autism diagnosis has today been released for public consultation.

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Video intervention offers promising language boost for kids showing early signs of autismThe first rigorous trial of a pre-emptive behavioural intervention for babies showing early signs of autism has found the therapy can improve early language development.

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The Kids Research Institute Australia researcher awarded prestigious Eureka awardProfessor Andrew Whitehouse awarded the most prestigious award in the country for young researchers – the 3M Eureka Prize for Emerging Leader in Science.